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Drones have been in the news a lot lately in the US. And I don’t mean the large, lethal military drones that operate in war zones, but the small Phantoms, Parrots and similar quadcopters favored by many hobbyists and independent commercial photographers and videographers. Weighing a couple of pounds or less with a maximum speed measured in feet, these tiny flying machines – called model aircraft by many operators - have been defined as “aircraft” by the FAA most recently in an interpretive rule published June 25. Defining these small UAVs as aircraft makes them subject to many of the same regulations as full-scale aircraft, including certification, airworthiness and operational requirements, like having a pilot's license.

According to the recently-published interpretation, the FAA has “historically…considered model aircraft to be aircraft that fall within the statutory and regulatory definitions of an aircraft, as they are contrivances or devices that are ‘invented, used, or designed to navigate, or fly in, the air”. Whether the FAA has historically considered them to be aircraft is the subject of much debate; many drone attorneys and at least one NTSB administrative law judge consider model aircraft to have been long-excluded from the regulatory definition of aircraft, which most of us consider to include aircraft significantly larger than the ones you can easily hold in the palm of your hand.

But the question here is not why the FAA considers hand-sized drones to be aircraft, regardless of their size or the altitude at which they’re operated. But why it can’t decide that an 1100 pound passenger-carrying Flying Hovercraft that looks like an aircraft - wings and all - and can fly at speeds of 70 miles per hour (and more) and at altitudes of 20 feet to more than 50 feet in the air, over water or land, is also an aircraft. These flying machines, called WIG craft or wing in ground effect craft, fly on the air cushion created by aerodynamic lift due to the ground effect between the craft and the surface, the same as occurs between any aircraft and the ground on landing. The question of whether these flying machines were aircraft came up when a friend asked how come Hammacher Schlemmer was advertising a Flying Hovercraft in its catalog with the claim that only a boat registration was required and not a pilot’s license. The Flying Hovercraft first appeared in the catalog in 2012. It is currently priced at $190, 000. Intrigued, by the question of how these craft avoided FAA regulatory requirements when tiny drones did not, I called the catalog company which promised to have a representative call me. I also called the manufacturer, Universal Hovercraft in Rockford, Illinois, and left a message. To date, no calls have been returned. How many have been sold and how many are being operated is unknown but there are quite a few videos on YouTube.

Here is a link to a Discovery Channel video that includes a conversation with the craft's designer, aeronautical engineer, Bob Windt. In response to how high the craft can fly, he states: "It will go real high. But it's not safe to do that." I also called my local Coast Guard field office which promised to speak to its headquarters office and call me back. I’m still waiting. According to its website, no Coast Guard safety standards currently exist for WIG craft, although it claims to be working on them and will be getting “further assistance from the [FAA]”.

I also put the question of whether a WIG craft was an aircraft to the FAA. The initial response from an FAA spokesperson was “we haven’t made any determination whether any WIG [craft] is an aircraft because we've not received any applications for certification. We would have no reason to make a determination prior to someone applying.” That seemed like a bureaucratic non-response so I tried more directly, asking whether a commercially-advertised craft that weighs 1100 pounds, flies 70 miles per hour and can go to altitudes of 20 to 75 feet is considered an aircraft by the FAA. The response I got was that according to Frank Paskiewicz, FAA’s Deputy Director for Aircraft Certification, no decision had been made: “we simply haven’t made any determination yet. …It really depends on how someone wanted to operate it.”

I think WIG craft embody some amazing technology that could have many beneficial applications. But their potential for raising safety concerns is also significant given their weight, speed, altitude and locations where they can fly. At least the FAA should be able to determine if they qualify as aircraft under its regulations.